


Gravity Rush - Side Stories

by Valis



Category: Gravity Rush
Genre: Drabbles and short ideas, short cute and silly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-30 12:23:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10876719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valis/pseuds/Valis
Summary: A collection of any scenes or story ideas that are too small to be worth posting separately. Most will be comedic but I can't rule out shipping.





	1. Wine

**Author's Note:**

> So in attempts to get over the month of not being remotely productive (thanks Zelda) I've taken to writing short scenes as warms ups just to get back into the swing of things before getting back to Gravity Queen. As Tumblr seems to be responding well, might as well throw them up here too.
> 
> This time around, Lisa in a formal setting. With booze. What could go wrong.

  
**\- Wine -**  


Lisa never felt more out of place than she did at formal occasions. The clothes were uncomfortable, the people dull, and it all felt like a giant waste of time that could be spent doing more important things.

But she was the one running Jirga Para Lhao, so sometimes she couldn’t escape them. When the trade agreement between Jirga and Hekseville had been formalised, there just had to be a formal celebration in the pillar city.

“‘Yo!” Syd waved as he approached, wine glass in hand. Unlike her, he appeared to blend in almost seamlessly, able to make idle small talk and weave his way through the crowd with seemingly no effort. “Seems like everything went well.”  
“For the most part.” Lisa looked down at her own glass, idly watching the red liquid swirl around. “Everything should tick along just fine. Might be a few teething problems-”  
“Vogo?” Syd asked, the wry smile he got in reply all the answer he needed.  
“Nothing I can’t sort out.”

Syd wasn’t sure how but somehow Lisa materialised a hip flask from somewhere, popping the cap and pouring a shot of clear liquid into her wine glass. Before he could react, she downed the glass in one motion, visibly recoiling for a moment as the aftertaste hit.  
“That’s much better,” Lisa said, before noticing the blank stare Syd was giving her. “What?”  
“...Why would you do that?”  
“I prefer my booze to have a kick to it.”  
“But it ruins the wine.”  
“That’s the _point!_ ”

Raven watched from a distance as the discussion between the two heated up. Syd pleaded his case while Lisa looked decidedly not impressed.  
“Mom and Dad are fighting again,” Raven said, nudging Kat as she was taking a drink of punch.

The resulting spit-take caused enough of a distraction that no one was paying attention as the leader of Jirga Para Lhao silently reached over and took Syd’s wine glass. She poured another shot from her hip flask and downed it, making eye contact the entire time.

Lisa 1, Syd 0


	2. Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ever wonder how weather works in Hekseville? They have to get water from somewhere so rain has to be a thing. So what happens if Raven gets caught out in the middle of it?

**\- Rain -**

Raven’s early morning patrol was an uneventful as it had ever been. Even Pleajeune, the district that never slept, was relatively quiet. Ever since the police had increased their patrols, the number of incidents that needed her attention had faded to almost none.

But Raven was in the habit of patrolling the city, and she had no intention of giving up that up anytime soon. She just finished a final sweep over Vendecentre, flying on the train station on the way back towards Auldnoir, when she spotted a familiar figure waving her down.

“‘Yo Raven,” Syd called as she dropped down. On top of his usual detective’s suit, he was wearing a waterproof coat and was idly swinging a plastic umbrella as he walked over to where Raven had landed. “Kat not with you this morning?”  
“She didn’t want to get out of bed,” Raven said, deciding to omit the part about how difficult it had been to escape with a sleeping Kat clinging to her arm.  
“She never was a morning person,” Syd laughed, glancing up the world pillar as old memories returned. “Glad it’s not my job to wake her up anymore.”  
“Lucky you. What’s with the umbrella?”

Syd’s seemed confused for a moment. He tapped the end of the umbrella against the stone at his feet before asking, “You didn’t hear? The atmosphere sensors picked up a rainstorm coming yesterday. Should hit us any minute now.”  
“The radio back at the pipe house broke.” A certain feline knocked it off of its crate. “So no, didn’t hear that.”  
“I’ll come by and take a look at it when I get a chance,” Syd said before the sky started to darken. A low rumble rang out from higher up the pillar. 

Time was almost up. The two watched the sky as black clouds seem to flow down the pillar. They had already covered Endestria and were now spreading towards the rest of the city.  
“Well, looks like I’m not beating it home,” Raven grumbled to herself with Xii perched on her shoulder, and looking about as impressed with the situation.  
“Want to borrow my umbrella? I got a spare at the station, so I’m fine if you want it.”  
“Thanks but I’ll pass,” Raven said, waving it away. “Can’t fly and stay under it. You might as well keep it.”

The clouds were almost upon them now. The sound of rain filled the air around them, ending any further conversation. Raven’s aura flared to life as she floated off the ground. She would have to fly straight through the storm to get back to Auldnoir.  
“Look after yourself!” Syd called up as he opened the umbrella. “Don’t want you getting sick!”  
“I’ll try not to!” 

Although, if it came to it, Kat did have a nurse’s outfit. Why Kat had it was a question Raven had yet to work up the courage to ask. So she waved goodbye to Syd, steeled herself, and flew through the rainstorm as fast as she could manage.

While it was not an especially heavy rainfall, not even close to the worst rainstorm Raven had ever flown in, it was rough going. It was hard to see where she was going, even more so as her hair was soaked and started to stick to her face. Her long sleeves, usually trailing behind her, stuck to her arms and sides, making her every movement uncomfortable.

Thankfully Hekseville’s storm shield, mostly used for gravity storms, kept lightning from striking the town. After all, Raven had had enough lightning strikes for one lifetime. So she stayed as low as she dared, skimming the rooftops of Auldnoir before passing the fountain square and dropping down to the pipe house.

The wall gave her a little shelter from the elements, but by that point she was already soaked to the bone. Xii had ducked under the wooden platform leading up to the entrance and was not likely to leave anytime soon, busy as he was shaking the water off and getting his feathers back in order.  
“Next time, I’m taking Syd’s jacket,” Raven grumbled as she braved a few more seconds of the rain as she darted up the platform, swept aside the curtain and stepped inside.

Kat had finally decided to get up and had just gotten her hair in order when Raven came in. She glanced over, the hello dying on her lips as her eyes met Raven’s. Kat stared, slowly sweeping her gaze across the drenched red and black hair clinging to Raven’s face, the sleeves sticking to her side, and the soaking wet clothes that were dripping all over the floor.

There was a moment’s silence. Then Kat almost doubled over laughing. She couldn’t help it. Raven looked utterly ridiculous, and the frown on her face was just the cherry on top. A frown that only deepened as Kat just kept on laughing, so hard it almost hurt.

Raven wanted to say something, but then she thought better of it as her frown morphed into a grin. Not that Kat could see it, doubled over laughing as she was. But Dusty noticed, wisely ducking out of the way.

There was a burst of power as Raven pulled the water soaking her clothes off of her. Kat looked up as the stasis field passed by her, seeing the sphere of water a half second before it hit her.

Vengeance was as sweet as it was cold. But the look of shock and horror on Kat’s face made it all worthwhile as now it was Raven’s laughter that filled the air. Kat wiped water from her eyes, fixing Raven with a glare before a wry smile appeared.  
“You realise this means war?”

The resulting water fight lasted two hours. No one was spared. Not even Dusty.


	3. Yunica's Day Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First things first, big thanks to Stumblingcamelid for cleaning this thing up for me. If you haven't already, go check out their story Shifting Dreams, it's unfair at how good it is.
> 
> There's not really a good summary I can give this part that the title doesn't already do. Yunica (and Permet) gets a day off. It goes about as well as you expect.

****

**\- Day Off -**

Whenever Jirga Para Lhao was in Hekseville’s orbit, it was not unusual to see airboats full of people travelling between the two cities. For Hekseville citizens in particular, they cherished the opportunity to visit the marketplaces and districts, to experience the new city for themselves, even if just for one day.

So while it may not have been strange at all to see Hekseville citizens flowing out of the docks from one of Lei Colmosna’s smaller marketplace, two citizens in particular were still cautious to avoid attention as they navigated their way through the crowd.

Yunica pulled the hood of her blue jacket down the moment she was clear. Somehow she’d managed to get through the throngs of people without issue. While a pair of loose brown slacks were hiding her prosthetic legs, it wouldn’t have meant much if she had stepped on someone’s foot.

“Are you sure that was easier than just flying in?” she asked her companion as she adjusted the glove covering her right arm.  
“Well, we might have been pardoned for trying to assassinate the former mayor after the Angel Incident and the Eto Invasion…” Permet replied. “... But I think both cities would be unhappy if we showed up with military gear.”  
“I suppose so.”  
“And it would be hard to enjoy a peaceful day off if we get caught up in trouble before we even start.”

Yunica grumbled, but she couldn’t deny that Permet had a point. And with the Special Defence Force still on shaky ground with the Hekseville government, it was probably smarter to not get embroiled in an incident. Commander Yuri would not be happy with that, not after he had been the one to order the mandatory day off for the pair.

Yunica had, of course, protested, as it was wasting a day away when they could be training for the next attack on Hekseville. Yet orders were orders, as the Commander refused to change his position. While Permet had suggested they make the most of it, Yunica would have preferred if Permet had shared exactly how she had intended to do that before they ended up on an airboat to an alien city.

But it was too late to turn back now. Yunica felt uncomfortable without the familiar weights of her jetpack and lance while Permet seemed much more at home in civilian clothes, idly adjusting the strap of the camera that hung around her neck. A leather jacket, a well worn backpack and a set of jeans completed the civilian guise. She looked every bit the tourist.

Now that the two of them were free of the crowd, they could stop and take stock of their surroundings. Even having seen pictures couldn’t prepare them for how different Jirga Para Lhao was from Hekseville. The wind was stronger as it swept between the vast floating islands, carrying with it the smells of the food being sold from the market stalls. And under the sound of all the people, a low hum could be heard from the gravity stones keeping the city in the air.

It was easy to spot the new tourists from the veterans. The tiny vibrations and sensation of flying generated by the entire island left them on unsteady legs. Yunica and Permet, used to living and training on the Jellyfish, were unbothered. Still, to keep up appearances Permet took a few pictures before the two moved into the marketplace properly.

They spent at least an hour wandering between the stalls, Permet stopping at the sight of anything she found interesting and insisting on talking with the stall owners. More than a few ‘ _souvenirs_ ’ ended up in her backpack. Occasionally she’d attempt to draw Yunica into the conversation too, but Yunica would have none of it. The knick-knacks and oddities on sale did not interest her in the slightest. 

So while Permet was distracted talking with another stall owner—this time over some books traded from a far off city—Yunica’s attention was elsewhere. She kept a careful eye on the moving crowds around her, refusing to drop her guard for even a moment. 

Most of the market goers were nothing to be concerned with. Her gaze kept sweeping back over to a lone man on the other side of the square, clad in the uniform of the garrison and with a machine gun slung over his shoulder. 

Yunica was careful not to let him notice she was watching his every move. She scanned the marketplace one more time, preparing herself should she need to fight him. It seemed simple enough. Between all the stalls there were enough items she could use to throw his aim off while she closed the distance. Once she was in close, her cybernetics and training meant that no ordinary human would be able to beat her. She had a punch that could shatter concrete, after all.

Permet, sliding her new books into her backpack, took one look at Yunica and noticed what she was doing immediately. She gave the younger girl a nudge, more to remind her to stay subtle than in disapproval. After all, she’d already spotted the same guard and decided how to deal with him herself.

A confrontation seemed unnecessary, however, as he made idle chatter with other tourists. His friendly disposition gave Permet an idea. Ignoring the frown she got from Yunica, she approached the guard, smiled politely, and held up her camera.

One selfie later, and the two moved away from the marketplace.  
“...What are you playing at, Sea Slug?” Yunica grumbled. “That seemed stupid.”  
“You think?” Permet turned the camera around, showing Yunica the picture she’d managed to snag.

Instead of her or the guard in the center of the frame, she’d slyly managed to take a shot focused squarely on the gun. Sharp and in-focus, the picture was good enough that Yunica could make out the serial number printed on it.  
“You used a selfie to gather intelligence on their weapons?” Yunica was almost impressed.  
“Looks different from the weapons we’re used to. The opportunity was too good to ignore.”  
“Have you been doing this the entire time?”  
“Mmm, let’s just say the pictures I’ve taken would make a pretty good map of the layout of this island.”

Now Yunica was certainly impressed. She took the camera from Permet and scrolled through the pictures. Permet watched her, looking proud of herself, as she had every reason to be: Yunica had underestimated her deviousness.

“Perhaps today isn’t going to be a total waste of time after all,” Yunica admitted. She held out the camera to return it, only for Permet to wave her off.  
“Actually, it might be better for appearances if you held onto it.”  
“I see…” Yunica did not sound convinced.  
“There’s other islands I want to see, and we’d make better tourists if both of us are playing the part.”

Permet, as usual, had a point. Now that their day had a point to it, Yunica found herself much more willing to play along. After a brief crash course with how to operate the camera, resulting in several blurry photos of a fountain until Yunica took one that Permet found acceptable, the two headed off and boarded a shuttle across to the next island over.

This one was the grand central marketplace, along with the docks that Banga Settlement was moored to whenever it was not on an expedition. Yunica followed Permet’s lead as they moved through the island. She took photos where-ever Permet directed her, retaking them when necessary, but eventually she started to get the hang of the camera’s quirks.

While she still wasn’t exactly joining in on Permet’s conversations with stall owners, she was at least pretending to be interested instead of glaring at them. This had the side effect of the two scoring some free meat skewers from one of the busier looking stalls.

Spending a few hours walking through all the scents of food, let alone the sounds of sizzling meat and boiling of water, had left them hungry enough that they took the offering. They did not regret that decision. After the standard issue food served on the Jellyfish, the skewers seemed like a slice of heaven.

“Okay, we are swinging back there and getting more of those before we leave.” Permet stated when they were finished, throwing the skewer stick into a trash can and licking her fingers clean, no longer caring if anyone noticed. That last little taste of the food was worth it.  
“I would not be opposed to that,” Yunica agreed, choosing instead to wipe her fingers clean on her jacket rather than risk exposing her metal right arm.

From there the two of them finished their tour of the last island. Next on Permet’s agenda was the business district. At first Yunica wondered how their tourist disguise was going to hold up there, expecting something similar to Vendecentre. But as they approached the congregation of skyscrapers that dwarfed the Hekseville’s own Central Clocktower, she suddenly no longer worried about it.

It seemed like there were hundreds of them, great pillars of steel, concrete, and glass. All on islands that were flying, not anchored to something solid like the World Pillar. To Hekseville natives, the sight alone was bizarre enough. Yet as the shuttle dropped the pair off, letting them marvel at just how massive some of the buildings truly were, it became all the more impressive.

Thankfully they were not the only tourists mesmerized by the architecture, and so blended in with the crowd. Still, it was hard to keep track on where they were going as they moved through the district, crossing bridges and climbing stairs, when Yunica’s eyes kept being drawn up to the tops of the behemoth buildings that were even being swallowed up by passing clouds.

She once again found herself missing her jetpack. Only this time it was less for the sense of safety, and more to satisfy her own curiosity at what the tops of those buildings were like. But for the moment all she could do was follow Permet’s lead as they moved through the district, talking with the locals and taking more photos.

Another hour passed, almost like a blur, and before Yunica knew it they had finished that district too. Last on the list was Lei Havina, the old settlement. Its flat open spaces, grassy fields and water features were breathtaking, especially to someone more used to the cramped stonework of Hekseville, or the steel corridors in the Jellyfish.

The pair found a bench near what Permet referred to as a lake, something Yunica had only heard mention of in children’s stories. It seemed as good a place as any to stop for lunch before they started making their way back. Permet, as expected, had come prepared for this, and was rummaging through her backpack looking for the food.

While she was doing that, Yunica had gotten bored while watching a child playing frisbee with a dog over on the other side of the lake. She was idly flipping through the photos she had taken. Permet had just managed to dig out the lunchboxes from underneath the—admittedly trashy sounding—romance novels she’d purchased earlier when she spotted Yunica tense out of the corner of her eye.

“Sea Slug?”  
“...Yes?” Permet said, sighing. She knew what was coming.  
“Almost all of the pictures you had me take are useless. There’s no intelligence in them.”  
“We needed to take some tourist photos to maintain our cover.”  
“They’re all tourist photos! We can’t construct a map of the islands with pictures of fountains.”  
“They were pretty fountains.”

Yunica stood up, looking more and more irate by the second. Unbidden, a possibility had occurred to her and the very concept was infuriating. She turned to Permet, glaring her right in the eyes.  
“...Did you trick me?”  
“Into actually having fun and enjoying your day off? Yes.” Cover blown, there was no point in trying to deny it.  
“Why?”  
“Commander Yuri’s orders were to have a day off and relax. Whatever it took. So I made it happen.”

Permet had to snatch the camera back as she could see the frame starting to crack and warp as Yunica’s grip tightened. The sudden movement seemed to set Yunica off even further as she started pacing back and forth, stomping with enough force that her prosthetic legs were breaking the pavement underfoot.

“You know what I thought, Sea Slug?” Yunica’s voice got louder and louder, Permet suddenly glad they had picked a spot away from other people. “I thought today was actually going to be something useful!”  
“It is as useful as you make it.”  
“We have wasted over half a day on nothing!”  
“R&R is not nothing, Sea Wasp, and you know it!” Permet snapped back.

Yunica was taken aback by the sudden outburst. It took the wind out of her sails, cutting any further escalation of her rant short. She slumped back onto the bench, as far away from Permet as she could sit. Her arms crossed and she looked away.

Permet sighed, adjusting her glasses as she tried to think of what to say.  
“Look… I’m sorry for the subterfuge. But you’ve been pushing yourself too hard in training.”  
“Excuse me?!” Yunica was drawn back in, glaring down Permet. Despite her partner’s intensity, she refused to yield.  
“Your trial times are starting to slip. It’s only a matter of time before even someone as good as you starts making mistakes. So I felt I had to get you to relax a little, even if only for a few hours.”

Yunica’s scowl softened at that. Before looking away, she leaned forward and rested her arms on her knees. Her gaze went out over the still water of the lake.  
“You noticed, huh?” she said, quietly.  
“I’m your partner. Of course I noticed. It’s my job to look out for you… even if you don’t make it easy sometimes.”  
“I guess…” Yunica was well aware she could be a handful at times, but she shrugged off that thought and continued, “I suppose you want to know why I’ve been pushing myself so hard?”

Permet had a pretty good guess, but she saw no reason to say anything. It was more appropriate to let Yunica vent, to allow her to express it in her own words.  
“Hekseville police were recruiting like crazy and doubling their patrols just to keep up with one Gravity Shifter. Now Sea Cat’s back, and there are two of them again! They don’t follow orders, they don’t have the training or the equipment. And we do!” She paused for breath, before adding almost as a whisper. “I will not get beaten by those two idiots and their pets again.”  
“That’s rude,” Kat piped up, leaning over the back of the bench and looking between the two.

She almost immediately had to launch herself backwards as the startled Yunica instinctively threw a punch at her head.  
“That was even ruder! It’s the first time we’ve seen each other since I got back, and you go and do that,” Kat grumbled. Dusty stood at her side, seeming just as unimpressed as the two stared down Yunica, who had shot to her feet and was glaring back.

Neither of the two noticed Permet slipping a hand back out of her jacket, pulling it back over the holster hidden inside as she tried to steady her breathing.  
“What are you doing here?” Yunica said, demanding answers and still in a fighting stance.  
“I could ask you the same question,” Kat countered.  
“Hey…” Permet spoke up. “Maybe you two should sit down, people are starting to stare.”

Thankfully the bench was wide enough for all three to take a seat, although Permet had to place her backpack on the floor, which meant she had to try and keep Dusty from getting inside it. Yunica was on the opposite end of the bench, arms folded again and scowling. While Kat seemed perfectly happy sitting between the two of them, laughing as Permet had to push Dusty away from the opening of her bag for the umpteenth time.

Still there was something about the gravity shifter’s presence that seemed to defuse the tension just as quick as it had come. Maybe she was oblivious to Yunica’s mood, or maybe she just didn’t care, as she bounced straight back to her familiar sunny disposition.  
“So you guys are visiting Jirga Para Lhao, huh? Wish I’d ran into you earlier, I’d have shown you around.” She glanced around conspiratorially before adding in a whisper. “I’d be much faster than those shuttles between islands too.”  
“You also would not have shut up,” Yunica grumbled.  
“Remind me, who just got the drop on the two of you?” Kat said, smirking at the glare she got in return.

“You are familiar with this place then?” Permet asked the gravity shifter as she pulled out the lunchboxes from her bag, now that Yunica didn’t seem about to storm off again. “I’d guessed as much with you knowing the woman running the place.”  
“Lisa? Yeah, she found me and Syd when we got sucked into a gravity rift and ended up in Banga.”

Permet offered Yunica’s lunch to her, who rebuffed at first until Kat said she’d take it instead. Permet and Kat shared a smirk as Yunica snatched the lunchbox away from the gravity shifter. While the two soldiers were eating, Kat filled the time by sharing the story of her time at the Banga Settlement

While Permet was interested, Yunica seemed annoyed, until the story reached Jirga Para Lhao and how it was run before Lisa took the reins. This type of struggle piqued her interest, especially when the tale turned to the original Garrison and their secret weapon, the Night Gale.  
“So Raven tried to kill you, again?” she asked through a mouthful of sandwich.  
“Yeah,” Kat nodded, leaning away from the spray of crumbs. “Between you and her, it seems to happen to me a lot. Really hope Cecie doesn’t get in that habit too.”

“Well the fact she is no longer under their control, I assume means you snapped her out of it?” Permet piped up, now having to push Dusty away from her food as he’d hopped up onto the bench’s armrest and kept trying to climb onto her lap to get at the lunchbox.  
“Something like that. I kicked her real hard into a windmill,” Kat chuckled, swinging a leg out and miming a kick as she did so.  
“...A windmill?”  
“Yeah. Hard enough to put a real big dent in it too. Wish I’d brought my camera today, I took a picture of it.”  
“Of the dent?” Yunica seemed confused.  
“Yep!” Kat glanced at her with an evil grin. “It’s great whenever Raven gets too smug. Shuts her right down.”

That actually got a laugh out of Yunica. It was possibly the most genuinely happy and relaxed Permet had seen her in a very long time. She made a mental note to invite Kat along the next time they had a day off; it appeared her cheerful personality was infectious enough that not even Sea Wasp was immune.

The rest of the lunch passed relatively peacefully. Permet had given half of her lunch away to Kat as a silent thanks for helping Yunica, and to make Dusty start bothering someone else instead—though no one needed to know that.

“Probably about time we started making our way back down,” Permet said as she retrieved the empty lunchboxes and returned them to her bag. “You’re quite welcome to join us, Sea Cat.”  
“She is?” Yunica looked confused, as did Kat who echoed with the same question.  
“Well the story isn’t finished. I’m curious as to how this Council came to lose power to Lisa.”  
“Oh, well that’s where it gets really good-” Kat paused, a thought occurring to her. “You arrived from Lei Colmosna, didn’t you? So we’re heading to the market place?”  
“That is correct.”  
“Great! There’s this stall, called Aldeen’s, that has the best meat skewers. You two have to try them! Like, I fought a Nevi swarm over them once, and I’ll do it again. They’re that good!”

Yunica was looking increasingly disturbed by Kat’s enthusiasm. The skewers they’d had earlier were good, but not that good. Unfortunately, Kat didn’t seem willing to shut up anytime soon, so they were trapped until she had to stop for air.

Thankfully she ran out of steam before Permet had to use the flash grenade she had been carrying. The trip back to the market was much faster than intended, just because Kat decided to stasis the pair, despite Yunica’s loud protests as she floated into the sky. It attracted more attention than both Permet and Yunica would have liked, but as they were travelling with the Gravity Queen, subtlety had already been thrown out the window.

Still, it was hard to dwell on any awkwardness or paranoia as they made their way through the marketplace when Kat resumed telling her story, about how the council had kidnapped Syd and most of Banga. Then she came to the thrilling climax of how Lisa had finally had enough, and led a prison break to free them.  
“And then me and Raven stormed the Bismalia!” Kat grinned around a mouthful of meat skewer.  
“...Wait, what?” Yunica almost dropped her skewer in shock. “ _The_ Bismalia? The battleship they have parked up there?”  
“That’s the one.”

Out of everything that made Yunica wary about Jirga Para Lhao, non-aggression pact or no, the giant floating battleship hovering just outside of Hekseville airspace was top of the list. It’s main gun seemed more than powerful enough to down the Jellyfish if it came down to it, not to mention how much damage it could deal to to Hekseville itself, especially if it started shooting at the struts anchoring the districts to the World Pillar.

So Kat offhandedly mentioning her and Raven simply storming it was more than a little surprising.  
“The hard part was getting close. Once we got on the main deck it was just kicking everyone’s butts until they pulled out these big mech things. Then we blew those up, and they all surrendered.” Kat shrugged.

She then noticed the looks Yunica and Permet were sharing, and immediately figured out what they were thinking.  
“You know, Raven actually worries about what’d happen if it goes rogue again,” Kat lied, having to wave off Dusty before he could call her on it.  
“At least one of you has some sense.”  
“Hey! You wanna know why I’m not worried? Because if it happens again, there’s not just two of us this time.”

The group paused, Kat’s words sinking in.  
“Sure, me and Raven handled it by ourselves last time. But if it happens again they’ll have Raven, Sea Cat, Sea Wasp, and Sea Slug to deal with! They won’t stand a chance, not against you guys with your training.”

Permet smiled, catching what Kat was doing. Yunica took the bait, puffing up her chest and looking proud.  
“There is no way some lousy garrison can stand up to the Special Defence Force!” she declared.  
“Couldn’t even beat a dropout like me. The real thing’ll wipe the floor with them.”  
“Hah! Bet we can take down more than you and Raven do.”  
“You’re on!”

The two shook on it. Kat wincing slightly as Yunica’s robotic arm gripped just a little too tight. Fortunately, before Yunica could carried away by actually starting a fight with the garrison, a beeping from Permet’s watch indicated it was time to catch the shuttle back to Hekseville.

Kat offered to fly them, but Yunica, not so gently, refused. A hop from one island to another was one thing, but the gap between the cities was way too large for her to trust the gravity shifter.  
“Rude,” Kat mumbled, watching Yunica move off towards the docks and the waiting shuttle.  
“Thank you,” Permet placed a hand on her shoulder. “You saved today.”  
“That’s what I do!”

Admittedly saving the day usually involved kicking Nevi, but seeing Yunica smile for once was pretty satisfying, too. The girl in question stood by the dock entrance, waving back at Permet and wondering what was taking so long.  
“Are you sure you won’t reconsider joining the Special Defence Force?” Permet decided to ask, despite knowing the answer.  
“I don’t think the military suits me… although I did keep the uniform.”  
“Shame, Yunica could use a friend like you.”

Kat laughed, which only grew in volume at the puzzled look on Permet’s face.  
“We’re already friends. If she wants to hang out, she can come find me and Raven anytime.”  
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Permet nodded, confident she could push Yunica into that if she needed to. “Well, time to go.”  
“Have fun. Cramped airboat… ooh boy, glad I don’t have to deal with that.”

Kat waved goodbye as Permet walked away. Yunica was leaning against a sign, arms folded as she waited impatiently. Just as the two moved to enter the docks and catch their shuttle, they heard a sudden yell as Kat appeared between them, throwing her arms around each of them.  
“Wait! I got an idea!”

Her idea, thankfully, didn’t take too long, and soon they were onboard. It wasn’t quite as busy as the morning shuttle, so they found seats available, rather than being forced into standing room only. Yunica dropped down into one, staring out of the window at the sight of a red and black blur racing past them and towards Hekseville.

Permet sat down beside her, pulling the camera off of her neck and looking at the screen at the last photo. The three of them were in front of the docks: Permet with an awkward smile, Yunica with her arms crossed and scowling, and Kat between them throwing a picture perfect salute.  
“ _Think I’ll get this one framed,_ ” Permet decided. Commander Yuri would definitely want to see it, that was for sure.


	4. Meow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And we're back again. Not quite as long as Yunica's Day Off but hopefully you'll get the same level of enjoyment from it. Thanks as usual to Stumblingcamelid for the cleanup, and really for helping flesh out this idea to begin with.
> 
> This one's focused on Raven and Kat again. And their two guardians. Who, despite being usually well behaved, are both capable of getting into mischief. Although in very, very different ways.

**\- Meow -**

Raven dropped down onto the platform outside the pipe house, fresh off of an uneventful morning patrol. Xii settled into place on her shoulder as she walked up the last few steps, brushing aside the curtain and walking inside.

“I’m back-” she called out, before stopping in her tracks and grimacing. Xii reacted too, puffing up his feathers in displeasure as an arid smell hit the two of them. Kat looked up from where she sat on the edge of the bed, holding a polish-stained cloth as she cleaned her gold bands.

She was wearing her old Banga clothes, not wanting to get polish from the small tub sitting beside her onto her usual gear.  
“Hey,” she waved, nearly hitting herself in the face with the cloth in the process, “you took a while today. Problems?”  
“Yes and no.” Raven shrugged, the smell of polish not so bad now that she was ready for it. “Ran into Aujean.”  
“Oooh. Bet that was fun.” 

Kat went back to polishing, working on one of the spirals that went around her thighs. Her tongue peeked out of the side of her mouth in full, ridiculous concentration, determined to not miss a spot. Raven couldn’t help but smile at the sight. Xii hopped down onto the back of the chair as she turned and opened the curtain that made up the front door of the pipe house.  
“You think about doing that out on the platform, so it doesn’t smell in here?” Raven asked as she stepped over to the bed, leaning up and turning on the small fan hanging above.

Kat paused, head tilting in thought, before she glanced up at Raven with a sheepish smile.  
“That would have been smart, huh?”  
“It’s fine. Should air out pretty quick when you’re finished.” Raven tilted the fan towards the entrance. “You really take care of those.”  
“Well, I pretty much just had these and Dusty when I arrived here. Besides, can’t go outside with them all dull.”  
“True. Last thing I think of when I think of you is dull,” Raven grinned. She chuckled at the look Kat was giving her as the blonde shifter tried to figure out if she had just been insulted. Xii took the momentary distraction to glide over to the bed, investigating the gold bands that Kat had already finished polishing. Raven wordlessly rescued Kat’s sun emblem from his beak as she stepped around the bed, and then began digging around in a box behind it. Finding what she was looking for, she pulled out a book Cecie had leant her.

Raven cautiously dropped down on the other side of the bed, careful to not to knock over the tub of polish. Xii perched on her knee as she leant against the wall of the pipe, Raven nudging him with a finger to ward him off another attempt at stealing Kat’s gear.  
“So what was Aujean up to anyway?” Kat asked, glancing over her shoulder as she went back to work.  
“Apparently he’s cooked up a new scheme for advertising. One that’ll make enough money to pay for Eugie’s education for a century.”  
“Let me guess, he wants me involved.”  
“Got it in one.”

Raven flipped opened her book as Kat sighed, rubbing her gold bands with a little more force than before.  
“You don’t have to keep getting involved in his stupid schemes, you know? They’re nothing but trouble for you.” Aujean had once tried to get Raven caught up in them, as well. He didn’t make that mistake again.  
“I know, I know,” Kat insisted. “But if I don’t then he’s probably going to get in more trouble. Besides, eventually one of them will work!”  
“I’m not sure if that’s optimistic or delusional.”

Obvious as the answer was, Kat was Kat. Even if it was stupid, she was going to try and help out anyway. So Raven would let her get on with it, knowing she would hear the sorry tale after it happened. With that comforting thought in mind, she went back to reading her book as Kat finished up her polishing.

Kat bundled up her metal bands, carrying them around the bed and through the curtain into the back. Raven looked up from her book and stage-coughed loudly, making Kat came back through to reclaim her sun emblem from Xii, who had made off with it again while he thought Raven was not paying attention.  
“Xii’s in a weird mood today,” Kat called through the curtain, in between sounds of her changing clothes.  
“That happens sometimes. One time, while you were gone, he stole Syd’s police badge. Made him run around the entire square chasing him.”  
“Hah! Wish I could have seen that.”  
“Don’t encourage him, or he’ll do it again.”

She stared pointedly at her troublemaker of a guardian, who decided to start grooming his feathers rather than look her in the eye. Although Raven’s glare lacked its usual bite with the amused smirk she had of that particular memory.

A few minutes later Kat stepped back through the curtain, clad back in her usual gear with gold bands shining bright.  
“Whaddya think?” she asked as she paused in front of the mirror, turning to make sure she didn’t miss a spot.  
“Looks good,” Raven said not glancing up from her book.

Kat pouted at the lack of attention, but Raven was always like that when she was reading. She was also, of course, correct. Yet that did not stop Kat from leaning over and flipping a page back, having to duck down to avoid a playful backhand. She laughed at her friend’s indignant expression, before Raven cracked a smile too.

“Well, I better go head out and see what Aujean wants.“ Kat picked up the tub of polish and dropped it into a box under the bed. “Maybe see Aki before grabbing lunch on the way back.”  
“Sounds like a plan.” Raven was already lost in the book again, until she noticed something amiss. “Wait, where’s Dusty?”  
“He ran outside. Doesn’t like the polish. He’d tried to eat it once.” That had, obviously not gone over well, and so he had avoided it ever since.

Kat stepped out onto the wooden platform, looking around for him. He normally didn’t go too far.  
“Dusty!” she called, walking up and down the walkway outside of the pipe house. He didn’t seem to be in his usual spots: not on the crates, or curled up underneath the mailbox batting at a piece of string Kat had left dangling from it.

She decided to check under the wooden platform. It was pretty dark in the shadows under there, and if Dusty was sleeping, then his stars dimmed.  
“You down here?” No response, but there was no where else he could be.

Sighing, Kat crawled under the platform with what little room it had to spare. She grumbled as she shimmied along on her hands and knees, being careful not to scratch her freshly polished bands as she went.

Then, just as she was almost completely under the platform, a loud, very familiar call came from above.  
“Meow!”

Startled, Kat banged her head on the wood above, the sound almost deafening in the crawlspace.  
“Ow...” she groaned, clutching at the back of her skull.  
“Mew,” came Dusty’s call once more.  
“Y’know, when I call you a pain, I don’t normally mean that literally!”

She backed out of the crawlspace, and then a few paces further, careful not to hit her head again as she got up. Xii was perched on the side of the platform, seeming confused as to what she had been doing down there.  
“I’m looking for Dusty,” she explained to the bird, glancing around and not seeing him. “Where’d he run off to now?”

Maybe the bang when she had hit her head had startled him. As she started checking around the walkway again, Xii hopped up onto the mailbox and watched her curiously. Again, there seemed to be no sign of the feline. Kat folded her arms, growing more frustrated, when there was a call from behind.  
“Meow.”

She spun on her heels, looking at where the sound had come from: the very empty platform, with Xii still perched on mailbox, tilting his head as he watched her.  
“Okay, Xii, where is he?” she asked, more determined than ever to find her cat- “Wait.”

She paused, a thought occurring to her as she stared at Raven’s guardian. He puffed up his feathers again, looked her in the eyes, opened his beak, and out came a pitch perfect mimicry of Dusty’s meow.

Xii looked all too proud of himself at the baffled, almost-disbelieving look on Kat’s face.  
“Meow!” he repeated, before adding a brief imitation of Dusty’s purr, as well.  
“I don’t-” Kat shook her head, before frowning and storming up the steps onto the pipe house. “Raven!”

“Hmm?” Raven looked up from her book, glancing at the clock up on a shelf. She had kept track of the time, so Kat should not be back yet. “What’s up?”  
“Xii is pretending to be Dusty!” She pointed back out of the pipe.  
“Okay...” That- that was a new one.

Hearing his name, Xii glided past Kat and landed on the back of the chair. He did his best to look innocent but between Kat glaring at him and the raised eyebrow Raven was giving him, he knew the jig was up. So he looked between the two and gave one final “meow.”

Raven stared at her guardian, silently putting her bookmark in place, and setting it down as Kat went into more detail about his mischief. Xii seemed to realise he was in trouble at this point, almost shrinking away from looks he was getting.

“Mrow!” Suddenly, and thankfully, the genuine article returned. The arrival of Dusty drew the attention away from him, the starry feline hopping down and walking into their home from above, where he had been sunning himself on top of the pipe itself.  
“There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you,” Kat told him as she leaned down to scratch behind his ears. He purred, rubbing up against Kat’s leg as she sheepishly realised she had somehow missed looking up the entire time in her search for him.

While they were preoccupied, Raven had gotten off of the bed and was standing in front of Xii’s perch, staring her troublemaker guardian in the eyes.  
“You and me are going to have a talk about this,” she promised him.  
“I’m not bringing him any treats!” Kat added. Now that she had found Dusty, her red aura burst into life and she flew away, leaving Raven to deal with disciplining her bird.

Raven walked over to the entrance of the pipe house, watching Kat leave. She waited a few moments, making sure the shifter was gone, before turning back with hands on her hips.  
“So what was that about? Annoying Syd is one thing, but you practically adore Kat.”

Xii shuffled back and forth on his perch for a moment, head tilting this way and that while he thought about it. Then he stopped, looked up at Raven, opened his beak, and delivered in a near-perfect mimicry of her own voice: “She’s cute when she’s mad.”

Xii burst into black motes of light as Raven lunged at him, face almost as red as her hair. She was really going to have to watch what she said around him from now on.


	5. Click

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ever had a joint that makes creaking noise? Imagine how annoying that is with an arm made of metal.

**Click**

Click.

Yunica grumbled as she slowly twisted her right wrist, hearing that same infernal clicking noise from inside the joint as she repeated the motion over and over, glaring daggers at the metal limb as the noise persisted.

While her robotic arm was definitely noisier than a flesh and blood limb, that only really applied to bigger movements, things like trying to grip a large object or throwing a punch. Something as simple as a wrist movement should not be making a sound.

She muttered a curse under her breath as she started to pull off her shirt, bemoaning her ruined evening. The clicking of her wrist with each undone button doing nothing to improve her mood before she practically tore herself free and hurling it onto her bed as she stomped past to her desk.

Unlike the plain, tidy wooden desk in Permet's room across the hall, Yunica's looked closer to an engineers workstation. Instead of notepaper, sketchpads and books like her partner, she had bolted several clamps and mirrors to the surface while the drawers closer resembled toolboxes than somewhere to store personal effects.

Yunica dropped into her chair, snatching up a pair of battered goggles from where they hung from one of the clamps. Despite her frustration, she carefully slid them into place over her eyes, careful not to get her hair caught in either the goggle straps or any of the panels or joints that made up her metallic arm.

Next she slid her forearm into two of the bigger clamps, locking them in place before beginning the process of detaching the arm. No matter how many times she did it, the sudden loss of weight as the steel limb came free of her shoulder never failed to catch her off guard.

She grumbled again, brushing off the uncomfortable feeling of her right arm’s absence as she pulled a screwdriver out of a drawer and got to work opening it up. 

With the clamps holding it steady, and many years of practice, it didn’t take long for her to get a panel open and get into her arm’s inner workings.

Now came the tricky part. Switching over to some tweezers she started gently pushing wires aside so she could see further into the machinery. A third clamp held the tweezers in place, keeping the wires out of the way as Yunica adjusted the lamp to get light in there.

Able to see the inner workings, she took ahold of her detached hand and started slowly turning the joint, again and again, over and over, trying to figure out exactly where this mysterious and annoying click was originating from.

It took twenty minutes of poking, prodding, and more than a little cursing, before Yunica was able to find the cause. One of the tiny internal screws in her wrist had started to work it’s way loose, causing it to rattle whenever the joint moved.

Yunica couldn’t help but feel relieved as she undid the offending screw. As annoying as it had been to find, replacing a single screw was simple. She held it up to the lamp’s light, noting how worn it had gotten and made a mental note to get her arm checked by the maintenance techies as soon as possible. The last thing she needed was an important screw to come loose in the middle of a firefight and her arm to lock up entirely.

“Permet’s lucky she doesn’t have to deal with this,” she mused, tossing the screw into the trash before digging though her desk drawers to find a replacement. “Didn’t need to take two years of engineering at Arquebus just to keep her limbs working.”

It took a bit of fiddling to get the replacement screw into place, Yunica having to hold the screwdriver with her teeth for a moment, using it to wedge the screw in place as she let it go with her one hand. Not the most dignified way of doing things, but it worked.

But then it was hard to look dignified shirtless, hunched over a workbench and deep in the workings of her own arm. So instead Yunica focused on the important thing, getting that screw tightly into place.

She carefully extracted the screwdriver, not wanting to jostle anything else loose, before dropping it into her lap. Slowly she reached for the metal palm and started to turn the wrist, holding her breath and listening as hard as she could.

Silence.

A relieved, almost proud, smile crossed her face at that. She gave the joint a few more rotations just to be sure and, when no click sounded out, went about removing the tweezers and replacing her arm panel.

Dropping her tools back into her desk, she pulled her goggles free and found a cloth to wipe the sweat from her forehead and grease from her fingers. Then she sat back in her chair, admiring her handiwork, and trying to figure out if it was worth reattaching her arm just to go to bed.

Deciding it wasn’t worth the effort, especially if she’d just have to remove it again to shower in the morning, she spun her chair and finally realised Permet was standing there.

If she was worried about being undignified before, the squeak of surprise that came out of her definitely did not help.  
“How long-”  
Permet laughed before explaining. “A while, sorry, didn’t want to say anything while you were concentrating,”  
“And why didn’t you speak up when I was finished?”  
“You were having a moment.” 

“Anyway, here-” Permet held out Yunica’s shirt, “when you have a minute, there’s some reports that came in that the commander wants us to take a look at.”  
“Right… I’ll be there in ten.”

Yunica took her shirt as Permet let herself out. So much for not needing her arm. It was almost comforting to have its weight back as she stood, working all the joints and making sure it was attached properly.

She pulled her shirt back on and headed out after Permet. One day, now that they were no longer wanted rebels, she could go back to Arquebus and try and finish that engineering degree, but until then she had a job to do.

Hopefully this one wouldn’t involve any annoying clicking sounds.  
Or Gravity Shifters.  
“Not sure which is more annoying…”


End file.
